


A-OK

by kuro49



Series: thirty days of writing '18 [16]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Con Artists, Alternate Universe - Leverage, Batfam Week 2018, Batfamily Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 15:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16162001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: Gotham belongs to one man. His name is B, and nobody gets a cut of this city without his say (and he says no in just about as many words). But word on the street is this: The B man is out of town and the kids are left all on their own.





	A-OK

**Author's Note:**

  * For [atomeek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomeek/gifts).



> prompt: a game of confidence. originally posted for day 4: AU for the batfam week 2018 on tumblr. 
> 
> i love and miss leverage from the bottom of my heart but even without leverage knowledge, this can be read as a con-artist au.

 

Gotham belongs to one man. His name is B.

He mostly runs long cons and he mostly runs with the same crew. B stands for boss, it also stands for Bruce for those in the know, and nobody gets a cut of this city without his say (and he says no in just about as many words). But word on the street is this: The B man is out of town and the kids are left all on their own.

 

Dick likes to play this game with all the newbies that join the crew. He calls it: “Trust fall!”

And then he is hurtling himself at the newbie from a height of way too fucking high without a line. Decidedly, this is also precisely why Dick is most definitely not in charge when B is gone at stern instructions from the man himself.

Duke catches him, only barely. Face twisted into an expression of barely contained horror, gets the two of them tangled in one line. Duke’s hand a death grip around Dick’s ankle and nothing else. It appears like some kind of miracle that they are both alive, hanging by a taut pulled string. It isn’t. It is calculated risk banking on Dick’s ability to read Duke’s every last tell and of course, it is also a well-placed bet on Duke's reaction time.

 

Upside down, Dick is grinning right at him.

“Knew you had it in you.” Dick says even if he doesn’t. Not in any measurable quantity at least. But the trick to a good lie is that there is always a part of the truth wrapped up within it. Everything else that comes after can be a little blurry.

Some are lighter in tones than others but the line they each walk is coloured in gray.

 

Duke is just getting to know this, but here is the know for those in the know.

(Not for those that knows a guy that knows a girl from losing a game of three card monte on a bench in Robinson Park who says she knows B in some vague sense of the letter while she whistles a little rhyme about finding the queen. She's got diamonds dressed up as glass jewellery and a purr to her R's like that isn't the first clue to give her away all on its own.)

Some call them the meanest crew this side of the Atlantic if they dare to tell their version of the story at all. B runs with the same crew for most cons even when the man specializes in the game of the long con. He runs a tight crew. And if his crew consists of mostly children, well, they all have to start somewhere don't they?

Dick came first, he is a grifter in any other name but he calls himself an actor. Jason came next, and Jason is a thief turned, ha, better thief when his sticky fingers snag at all the right wallets in all the best-dressed suits. Then it is Tim who takes right after B, a mastermind behind what has to be some very elaborate cons even without the years to his name.

Somewhere along the way, there is Barbara then Cass, and Barbara is a hacker as much as Cass is a hitter. In some short brisk words: They are good. In a few more words: They are damn near _too good_.

After that, it is Stephanie and Damian and now, Duke who has just passed some kind of audition to join B’s crew without the B.

(It’s an _R,_ they do not say.)

 

It takes both Cass and Jason to untangle Duke from Dick from the line the two of them are suspended from and if Duke is not crazy about heights, he is not about to let that show now.

“So, what’re we supposed to be?" Duke asks from the solid albeit rocky ground he is now standing on when he finally tugs free. "A bunch of modern day robin hoods?”

“We usually just call ourselves Robin for short.” Steph supplies with a shrug, glancing up from where Tim and her are mapping their way further into this cave they are in. Tracking their progress with faint rough scratches of white chalk against the rocky surfaces, and it looks near non-existent unless you look close enough but nobody ever really does. “But yeah, that’s the point.”

“So," Duke grunts out as he tightens his grip on the duffle bag full of pick axes that has changed multiple hands to end up in his, "what’re we _really_ doing here?”

Hearing the echo that follows each step they tread while they head deeper within, Duke tries again for an answer that is actually an answer instead of every non-answers they have given him to lead him nose-first into some deep dank caves. Barbara's instructions take them through narrow paths and passages that no longer match the paper map that Steph had a couple turns previous.

The cave around them looks dark, looks vast, looks like it could become something of a diamond mine if they dress it up a little.

Tim stops at the front of their little excursion, looking forward at a nice dead end. He turns back to them and answers with a gesture for Duke to drop the duffle bag to the ground at their feet and in the light of their lousy headlamps, Tim's grin is all teeth.

“Would you believe me if I said we’re going spelunking?”

 

Mind you, they are not.

No matter how much Dick is looking like he is more than a little bit eager to throw himself off another deep end, safety net seemingly a non-existent concept to the man.

 

It isn’t an exact formula but a good con comes together all the same.

It always starts with a bad man, usually he is in a position of power and wealth. They each play a part. Sometimes it takes a week to hook the mark in, sometimes it takes a month. But the rule of the con stays the same: You can’t con an honest man.

It is a good thing there is a whole lot of greed in this city alone to keep them all busy.

And they are Busy with a capital B.

Duke resigns himself to picking up one of the pick axe to start. And here is the plan, there are some minor details to be ironed out but Tim's grin and the dark shadows that circle that gleam in those eyes just about say it all. As they work, Jason grumbles the entire time why marks can’t just be happy with being handed a fake diamond these days, oh _no_ , it is a whole diamond mine or nothing. Barbara laughs from the comm in their ears while Steph just laughs in his face. Cass isn’t laughing but she might as well be.

 

When the job is done, and the mine literally goes crumbling down around that very bad man (Dick calls it poetic justice, Jason tells him to read a book), B comes home and doesn’t even ask them to get rid of their faux collapsed diamond mine.

And, Robin as a collective whole might go as far as to call the man _proud_.

 


End file.
